Lyr ADD: Hello Baby (Rosco Gordon)

Subject: Lyr Req: Hello Baby Rosco GordonMr Jon
From: GUEST,Mr Jon
Date: 28 Jun 23 - 06:51 AM

I am seeking the lyrics to Rosco Gordon's song "Hello Baby". The recording of the song is live and was poorly captured. I can't understand any of it.

Subject: Lyr Req: Hello Baby by Rosco Gordon
From: GUEST,Mr Jon
Date: 28 Jun 23 - 06:56 AM

I am seeking the lyrics to "Hello Baby" which Rosco Gordon recorded with Wayne Bennett. I can't understand any of it on Youtube or Spotify..

Subject: Lyr Add: HELLO BABY (Rosco Gordon)
From: cnd
Date: 28 Jun 23 - 02:00 PM

Here's a link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIROQJDOg74. Below is my transcription.

HELLO BABY

Hello baby
Had to call you on the phone
Hello baby
Had to call you -- had to call you on the phone
I feel kinda lonesome
Daddy wants his -- got to have his baby home

Downright rotten
Lowdown, lowdown dirty shame
I tell ya, it's a
Downright rotten
Lowdown, dirty shame
The way you treat poor me
And I know I'm -- I tell you I know I'm not to blame

[instrumental break]

Jelly, jelly, jelly
Jelly stays on my mind, good loving
Jelly, jelly, jelly
Jelly stays on my mind
Jelly Roll killed my pappy
And my mammy gone blind

* "Jelly" and "jelly roll" here is obviously not the dessert, but probably a drug. I've heard jelly used to refer to both cocaine and heroin; it could be either here.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Hello Baby by Rosco Gordon
From: GUEST,Mr Jon
Date: 28 Jun 23 - 07:04 PM

Thankyou CND, you've got better ears for the vernacular than I.
No, 'jelly' is not a drug but a euphemism for when an act of procreation occurs, similar to the original meaning of 'rock'n'roll'. With that in mind, a re-reading of the lyric will verify what I mean.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Hello Baby by Rosco Gordon
From: cnd
Date: 28 Jun 23 - 08:48 PM

Glad to help!

I considered jelly being sex, but I didn't think it would make sense to cause blindness, whereas complications from drug usage could (according so some cursory research, at least)

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Hello Baby by Rosco Gordon
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jun 23 - 09:52 PM

there was a Bessie Smith song that had lyrics 'I want a hot dog in my jelly roll', or something like that. I remember eorge Melly singing it at the 100 Club in Oxford St London in1971.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Hello Baby by Rosco Gordon
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jun 23 - 09:53 PM

......and I guess mammy's blindness was caused by some sort of social disease